Examples Of American Exceptionalism In The Avengers

The Avengers team represent the United States response to terrorism by demonstrating different types of Foreign Policy through the character’s responses in the movie. Throughout the movie The Avengers, attributes of American Foreign Policy including, American Exceptionalism, the military industrial complex and American public opinion are displayed by certain individuals on the Avengers team. I argue that Iron Man, Captain America and the Hulk are a clear representation of how American’s identity responded to the post 9-11 world. Hagley and Harrison state that “The group culmination of the Marvel superhero films, The Avengers, was particularly well-designed expression of American political identity in the post- September 11 era: each character
Captain America’s role in the movie is almost opposite of Iron Man’s. This is displayed quite a few times throughout the movie, for example, when Thor jumps onto the air craft to steal away the recently captured Loki, Captain America’s response is “We need a plan of attack!” and Iron Man responds with “I have a plan, attack!”. Another example is when Captain America says “We have orders, we should follow them” and Stark responds with “Following really isn’t my style.” Both of these scenes portray Captain America demonstrating both “traditional notions of patriotism and acceptance of authority” (Hagley and Harrison, pg. 1). Hagley and Harrison state that “Rogers traditionally has seen the world in black and white, with a clearly defined enemy, and to that end, he has followed an operational hierarchy as a way of showing patriotic support for the war”. Rogers demonstrates traditional, righteous protection of democracy when Loki is ordering a crowd in Germany to kneel before him, Captain America swoops in to with his star-spangled banner shield to protect the innocent, elderly man who refused to kneel before Loki. This act itself is a prime example of how Captain America is a defender of freedom. Another scene in the movie that I felt displayed American Exceptionalism through Captain America was in a conversation between Captain America and Agent Phil Coulson. Agent
Bruce Banner, is the character that is lucky enough to represent two types of American public opinion, which portrayed through Dr. Bruce Banner himself and his alter ego the Hulk. The two types of American public opinion that is portrayed through him include the average “reluctant” citizen that is called upon to apply his intelligence to fight terrorism (Dr. Banner), while also representing an “angry” citizen that lets his anger take complete control after hearing the devastating news about the terrorist attacks (the Hulk). Hagley and Harrison claim that “Loki’s reliance on the unleashing of Banner’s alter ego to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. is testament to one of the basic mechanisms of terrorism: to divide, to terrify, and to unleash anger and hatred that decimates the previous harmony of a group and demands revenge, which most often leads to further division and loss of life.” Banner is the classic example of human intelligence, reason and empathy versus the uncontrollable anger that lies within him. Banner is strictly asked to be a part of the Avengers team for his intelligence and gamma ray expertise to help locate the Tesseract cube only. When Iron Man says that Banner may just have to “suit up” with the rest of the Avengers team, Banner responds “I don’t get a suit of armor; I’m exposed, like a nerve…It’s a nightmare.” At the end of the movie Banner is able to somewhat control his anger and strictly direct it towards destroying Loki and the